CSR expands dual-mode BlueCore platform with turnkey SoC for Bluetooth modules and embedded systems

March 3 2015, 04:00
Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) announced the launch of the BlueCore CSRB5348 dual-mode system on chip (SoC). The new feature rich Bluetooth Smart compliant platform offers a powerful, versatile and cost-effective solution, making it ideal for a variety of next generation embedded systems and modules. This configurable SoC is ideal for a number of emerging applications in the Internet of Things (IoT) space which require both Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart Ready capabilites.

The industrial temperature grade SoC, part of the popular BlueCore CSRB534x series, includes an embedded Bluetooth v4.1 compliant radio, 80MHz RISC MCU, 40MHz DSP, USB charger and large I/O. This highly integrated package allows for significant bill of materials (BOM) savings and optimum design flexibility, enabling the CSRB5348 to meet the needs of a wide range of applications including industrial and home automation, EPOS, data loggers, barcode readers, metering devices and systems with large interface requirements, such as keyboards.

“CSR continues to build on its nearly 15 years of Bluetooth leadership with new platforms that address rapidly changing market needs,” says Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President, Business Group at CSR. “The CSRB5348 offers a powerful set of classic and low-energy features in a highly integrated package, making it ideal for module manufacturers looking to provide flexible, cost-effective solutions that speed time to market.”

By integrating the microcontroller, battery charger and much of the analog and power management into a single platform, CSRB5348 offers a significant BOM and real estate saving. With dual-mode Bluetooth capabilities, the platform is easy to implement and extremely cost effective.

The CSRB5348 is Bluetooth Smart v4.1 qualified, making it ideal for devices requiring traditional and recent low-energy features, such as keyboards, and ensures devices offer optimal battery life to the consumer. The platform makes use of a highly efficient baseband, so that system level power consumption is minimized, giving optimized performance with minimum development effort.

The new platform comes with 22 fully configurable digital and 22 analogue I/Os for design flexibility. It also offers embedded USB battery charging for lithium cells, embedded ROM, RAM and the option for memory expansion with a serial Flash memory interface. This ensures an environment that gives manufacturers the flexibility to offer feature rich and differentiated designs whether they are developing a medical device, a connected stylus or an industrial automation solution.

In order to help developers bring new products to market quickly, CSR has launched a dedicated software development kit (SDK) for the CSRB534x series. The new CSRB534x launches with a dedicated development board for fast evaluation and system development. The CSRB534x SDK will allow developers to get hands-on with the new platform and accelerate the development of a range of wireless devices. It supports SPP and GATT and enables flexible data transfer including HID over GATT. The SDK includes an MFi V4.0 add on, Android and PC support.

The CSRB5348 development kit will be available in March 2015 with prices starting from $249.
www.csr.com
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